Ugh, I'm sorry. Well, at least I'm going to work on this now. Well, here we go.

Chapter Nine

"Where are we?" Tori asked while being guided by a few lesser demons. They made sure that her hands were tied behind her back and she couldn't escape.

"Shut your trap!" Kobun said, turning around and slapping Tori. She turned away from him, wishing that she could rub her cheek.

"I just want to know where we are. Is that so much to ask?" Tori said quietly.

"If I tell you, will you be silent?" Kobun yelled.

Tori looked at the wall. "For a little while," Tori said truthfully.

"FINE. We're under a lake. We are going to go to Ashi's temporary home. You've really been a pain to get to. Once we're there, we've got to help someone, but we're gonna bring you back home," Kobun said, walking ahead with his torch.

Tori looked at the wall again, not really seeing anything. She started thinking about Hitsuji, and what he thought about her leaving. He probably hates me, Tori thought, hugging herself. I wonder if he's going to come look for me with the others?

"Stay here," Kobun suddenly said, breaking Tori out of her thoughts. She looked ahead and saw that he was up against the wall, knocking on it in random places. Maybe there was a secret passage?

Tori backed into the wall and tried to get her nails through the rope that bound her hands. The demons who escorted her didn't notice what she was trying to do, and she kept on a mask of sadness.

Suddenly, the rope broke, and Tori grabbed onto it tightly, so it wouldn't alert the demons of what had happened.

"Hey, you two, get over here!" Kobun called to the demons. They nodded and went over to the wall where Kobun was standing. "You, go check to see if there is a barrier farther down. The entrance is supposed to be next to the barrier."

After Kobun ordered the demon to check everything out, he turned back to where Tori was... to find a single feather on the floor where she had been standing.

- - -

Hitsuji ran through the forest as fast as he could, his arms pumping to boost his speed. Behind him was InuYasha and the others, all looking for some hint of Tori.

InuYasha stopped and called out to the others, "HEY! GET OVER HERE!"

Hitsuji quickly went back to where InuYasha was standing with Kagome. "Did you find something?" the demon asked worriedly.

InuYasha nodded and knelt down to the ground. "I can faintly smell Kobun and Tori right here. But it's not anywhere else, and it just goes through the ground.

"Well, then they must be underground, then!" Hitsuji said, stomping his foot right where InuYasha was sniffing. That was a bad idea, because right after he did that, the ground beneath them collapsed into a large tunnel, sending them all to their DOOM! Or at least giving them a couple bruises.

"Ow!" Shippo complained, rubbing a large lump on his head.

Hitsuji groaned and sat up, looking around to see if there was anything familiar inside the tunnel. Apparently not, because Hitsuji was just as confused as the rest of them.

"What happened?" Kagome asked, rubbing her head.

"I don't know..." Hitsuji said, standing up. "But I have a feeling I know where this will lead us."

"Tori, right?" Miroku guessed, helping Sango up.

"Yup."

"Let's go then," InuYasha said, walking out in front of the group. They didn't have to walk far, though, because Tori ran straight past them.

The whole group turned around and followed her back through the tunnel, all of them looking like they had seen a ghost.

"Wait up!" Hitsuji shouted. Tori turned around and smiled.

"Hey! Uh... We gotta go!" Tori said, jumping out of the tunnel they had buried themselves in. The others joined her outside and Hitsuji walked up next to her.

He cleared his throat and then said, "What are you doing out here? We thought you were caught by Kobun!"

"I was, but I escaped," Tori said, looking at the hole.

InuYasha glared and interrupted with, "I'm sure you two are happy to see each other again, but we gotta go. If we don't, they'll catch you again."

"Do you think we should hide?" Kagome asked InuYasha.

"I hate to be a coward, but I guess that's our only choice for now. If we don't go think about our next move, then Tori's gonna get captured before we have a chance to do that," InuYasha said.

"Yeah... OK," Tori agreed, just happy to be back with the group.

- - -

They all sat in a cave hidden by the rocky side of a mountain, musing about what to do next. No one had any real plans, but they had vague ideas.

Tori sat next to the back of the room, her eyes closed, deep in thought.

Hitsuji walked over to her and sat next to the other demon, coughing a little bit to catch her attention. "Are you feeling all right?" Hitsuji asked.

"I'm fine," Tori snapped, her eyebrows arching closer to her eyes and her mouth moving into a frown. Everyone had been asking her the same questions over and over again. She was getting sick of it.

Hitsuji glared. "Well, sorry for being worried."

"I've lived this long, I think I can manage to survive through ordeals such as this," Tori bit back, her eye closest to Hitsuji opening to look at him.

"Look, do you want me to help you or not?"

"I don't want anyone to help me! I can take care of myself just fine. You just like to butt your head into other people's buisness!" Obviously she was a bit irked after being kidnapped again.

Hitsuji growled. "Like you can take care of yourself! You can't even keep yourself from getting kidnapped for a couple days!"

"It's not my fault that we're sucked up in this stupid mess!" Tori yelled, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"So what? You're gonna blame it on me?"

"I never said that, Hitsuji!" Tori yelled, her fists clenching. She turned away and sighed.

"What now?" Hitsuji asked, glaring.

"I'm sorry... It's just... I can't take it anymore. I'm sorry that I started to take out all my anger on you... I just... I just need to think. Can you leave me alone for a while?" Tori asked, leaning back against the wall.

Hitsuji sighed also. "Yeah, whatever," Hitsuji said, obviously still miffed. He stood and left the back of the cave so that Tori could be by herself for a while. Though, no matter how hard he tried, Hitsuji just couldn't stay mad at Tori.

And Tori... She couldn't stay mad at him, either.

Tori turned around in her spot and noticed that there was a small hole hidden behind some rocks. It was just big enough to fit a full grown person through, if they crawled on their hands and knees.

The eagle looked behind her to see if anyone was watching her. When she was certain no one was looking, she went to the hole and started to crawl through it.

Once she was about half way through the small tunnel, it started to widen and get taller. She walked out of the hole in the wall and found herself in sort of a hall way. At the end it turned to the left, and where it turned it seemed to glow a little bit. As Tori walked, the left wall seemed to slowly get shorter, until she reached where it turned. In front of her, Tori saw a beautiful sort of oaisis inside of the cave. There were tons of trees with fruits, and then there was a hot spring in the middle. The steam wrapped around her feet and warmed her quickly. Near the hot spring was a sort of pond, and Tori could see that there was fish in it.

Seeing the hot springs, she realized how dirty she was. Tori took off her clothes and went into the hot water, sighing once she was in there. She closed her eyes and relaxed, letting time pass without a care.

Though, once the others realized that Tori was gone, Hitsuji went off to look for her. He also found the hole in the wall. Catching a small wiff of Tori's scent, he went through the hole and followed the trail to the amazing place inside the mountain. Though, he also found something else.

Tori felt another presense and turned around. Upon seeing who it was, she screamed bloody murder and lowered herself in the water. A blush flared on her face and one also popped up on Hitsuji's face. He quickly turned around and cleared his throat.

"Uh... I'll go tell the other's that I found you, then," Hitsuji said, walking away.

Once he was a good distance away, Tori whispered to herself, "You can join me, you know." Of course, the only person to hear that was herself.

Tori turned around and leaned against the side of the spring, her blush still present on her face.

Soon after, Tori finished her bath and decided that she would explore a little bit. She went to the trees and picked some fruits, many of them she had never seen before.

After she ate, she went back to the rest of the group and told them about the little forest in the back of the cave. Of course, they were all amazed when they saw it, besides Hitsuji, and everyone decided to explore.

Hitsuji and Tori were left to do their own things, but both of them had no idea what to do.

"So... Um..." Hitsuji said, blushing.

"I don't mind," Tori said, glancing over at Hitsuji. Her voice was flat and her face was expressionless.

Hitsuji jumped. "What?"

She smirked. "You don't have to apologize. It didn't bother me." Tori smiled fully and started to walk towards the trees. "Would you like to join me for a walk?" Tori asked.

Hitsuji smiled softly and said, "Yeah. I'd like that."

Ugh, I didn't like that chapter. Oh well. Well, Maki will take it from here. Sorry that I didn't get the chapter up sooner, and that this is so short. I had no idea what to write, and I got caught up in my own projects. Well, at least the next chapter will be coming (hopefully) soon. But the ending will also come soon enough.

- Kyoumi